Collateral Damage
by NirvanaFrk97
Summary: We always see the adventures the exorcists have in defeating akumas and saving people. But for the people who are on their own, how do they survive? This is a survivor's desperate attempt at escaping the akumas' carnage. (Mainly OC, Allen and Kanda have small roles).


"Words" Dialogue

'Words' Thoughts

Italics are just for the eeriness.

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The scene of a burning town in Britain could be seen at a distance. The dark night was lit up by the glowing fires that did nothing but compliment the destruction.

The body of Mary Wonder lied unconscious on the floor. Normally one would think of her as a beautiful young woman; however, due to a wound on her temple, and her clothes being in tatters they would think otherwise.

The eerie stillness in the air was shattered when her still hand suddenly twitched as she slowly regained consciousness. Mary could not recall anything that had happened before falling unconscious except for the sharp pain on the side of her head from being hit by rubble. She groaned painfully as she struggled to stand up as she rubbed her pulsating lobe.

"What's going on?" She murmured softly as she finally regained her bearings.

She looked around the room and saw that her ceiling had caved in. Disoriented, she slightly limped to her window. She froze. Her hometown was in ruins, every building as far as her eyes could see had been destroyed.

A mask of sheer horror was engraved on her face as she struggled to find words to say.

"My God... What's happened?" She whispered to herself in disbelief.

She ran her hands around her body, searched for any wounds, sensing the texture of each, determining the extent of her lacerations. Realizing that she came out relatively unscathed, she then wiped herself off as she went towards the door with renewed determination.

'I can't waste any time thinking about this. For now I've to get out of here. Only then, can I make any sense of this.' She thought to herself as the eerie silence returned.

Outside Mary's house rubble were littered around the house. The bodies ranged from children to elderly people, all of them bloody messes. Oddly enough she noticed large piles of what seemed like ashes surrounding clothing. Gulping anxiously, Mary continued to move through the empty streets. No sound could be heard except for the blowing wind by this time. However, a strong smell of smoke pointed to the raging fires in the distance illuminating the murky sky as the moon lay hidden by the clouds.

As Mary walked over the rubble of what her hometown used to be. She felt as though she's the only one left out of everybody else. And she predicted that she may have been the only survivor. She then felt a dark sinister energy lying heavily in the air, whatever it was, it wasn't done with its carnage, and she was still left. Her anxiety grew exponentially as she walked past more rows of dead bodies and abandoned clothing.

"W-were... Were we attacked?" Mary fearfully asked herself as she continued to quietly sneak out of town.

'B-but why were we attacked? And by what, the town is completely destroyed!' As far as she knew, no military had found a way to cause this kind of mass destruction in such short time and the buildings seemed to have been destroyed from top to bottom rather than broken down from their base.

She looked around her surroundings in desperation as she tried to find any other sign of life. However as fearful as she felt, a new wave of determination washed over her.

'Whatever it was, I have to get out of here. But first I need to stay hidden so I can figure something out.' Mary then quickly ran into a nearby destroyed building for cover.

Mary hid close to a barely intact wall as she looked through a gap in it.

'I'm going to have to sneak out through the rubble, and then seek refuge in the nearest town.'

And promptly after that, Mary then snuck through an open alleyway as she warily kept an eye out for any sign of danger. Unfortunately she had accidentally tripped and knocked into a wall which caused it to collapse due to her anxiety.

'Oh my God... I hope nobody heard that or else any chance of survival will be ruined.' Mary was nearly hyperventilating but was somewhat able to compose herself, though still felt paranoia spread through her.

She frantically glanced around for any sign of movement when suddenly; the sound of labored breathing reached her ears.

'It's coming from around the corner.' She realized as she cautiously walked towards the sound. As she got closer, she then recognized the sound of slight giggling.

'Giggling? Is there someone over there?' As obvious as the answer was, Mary did not know what to expect. However the thought of another potential survivor was able to persuade her to continue to move.

As she approached the giggling source, she saw the local saloon nearly destroyed. She walked towards the door, where she thought the sound was coming from, when suddenly she was grabbed by the ankle. Mary jumped noticeably but was able to suppress a scream to a simple "Eep!" Then the masculine voice of the one who grabbed her began to speak up with an insane laugh.

"DEMONS! DEMONS! They're everywhere; they killed everyone and destroyed everything in sight!" Mid-rant, the man broke down in tears as he continued.

"Everybody's gone, they killed them. They killed them all..."

Mary stood frozen in place as she absorbed what he said. She recognized the man as the town drunk, Edmund Fitzgerald. The man was morbidly obese from his years of drinking, his hair had thinned, and he was rumored to be insane for years. As she regained her bearings she forced his grip off her.

"Edmund? Edmund what are you talking about?" Though somewhat relieved, Mary was still wary of the man.

In a slightly calmer voice Edmund responded.

"Demons, I said. Demons attacked our town. Nothing worked on them; they just got angrier and killed remorselessly. Guns, cannons, pitchforks... none of them worked." Edmund began to weep as he remembered what happened.

Mary looked at Edmund perplexed. She didn't know if she could believe him. Demons? Surely there was no such thing. As she thought this to herself, a threatening presence stood behind her. Every alarm in her body lit up, her instincts were screaming for her to run, but still she spun around, petrified, and stared at the two beings in front of her. Now she understood, Edmund was right, there were demons. The demon directly standing in front of her looked like a macabre concoction spawned from the gates of hell; with its large frame, its demonic blood-red face, its claws oozing fresh blood as it dripped into pools to the floor and it also seemed to wear a type of body armor of sorts. Behind it the second demon had a sphere-like appearance with multiple gun barrels coming out of it, as it somehow floated in the air, its face contorted in a seemingly diabolic shape of its own pain.

"W-what... What is this?" Terrified, Mary could not find anything else to say. After that Edmund broke into hysterics, crying and laughing uncontrollably.

"We're doomed. The demons came for us."

The humanoid demon merely smirked sadistically.

"Oh? I see we haven't exterminated all the pests around here." The malicious and mocking tone in its voice terrified the two humans in front of it. With a large smirk, the demon laughed darkly to itself.

"Well for the time being anyway."

As the first demon continued to smirk, the second one reminded their prey of its presence.

"_Kill... kill... kill...We'll kill every last one of you._" The chilling yet mechanical tone it used absolutely terrified Mary as Edmund sobbed quietly.

"W-what?"

Mary failed to comprehend what was happening which caused the two demons to smirk evilly at her. Then the spherical demon pointed its weapons at her, the first one looked on in amusement, as it waited to end its hunt. Before the demon was able to attack, Mary felt the adrenaline surge through her as she dodged what looked like a large bullet. She broke out in a sprint, but not before hearing Edmund's scream of agony which was abruptly cut off by the sounds of explosions. Grimacing to herself with tears in her eyes, she knew Edmund was dead. However she ran as fast as she could to escape the wrath of the demons.

"I-I have to get out of here. Whatever those _demons_ are, they're not playing around. They'll kill me if I don't get out of here." In a state of panic, Mary wildly ran in hopes of losing the demons. However…

"What's this? An insignificant pest who thinks they can run away? How amusing." The taunting and arrogant tone sounded nearby.

Mary glanced over her shoulder in abject terror to see the first demon nonchalantly floating behind her as she ran the other just at a slight distance from them.

"G-get away from me!" She screamed in horror and disbelief as the demon continued to smirk.

Mary desperately ran harder as she tried to get away. She didn't care where she went as long as she could lose the demons. She turned to her right as she sprinted down the main road: as sweat poured down her face, her eyes were wide in fear, she the turned on corner into an alley and finds herself at a dead end. Much to her frustration.

"Dammit! What do I now?" She grit her teeth as she furiously tried to find a way to escape. However she knew there was no way to escape and felt the demons reach her location.

"Trapped like a rat are you?" The dark and sadistic voice mocked her. Seeing her fear build up, the humanoid demon licked his lips hungrily.

"Well, I always did enjoy playing with my food." The demon continued to taunt Mary as the second demon arrived wearing a nigh-insane smile.

"_Kill... Kill... Kill..._" Once again, the chilling voice destroyed any sense of hope that may have been there.

Mary was once again immobilized in place. She slowly turned to see both demons floating lazily behind her. She began to hyperventilate thinking that her death was now inevitable.

Pleased from seeing its prey in such a state, the armored demon raised its bloodied claws towards Mary.

"As much as I enjoyed this chase, I think it's been dragged on long enough." It stated now bored.

"D-damn... I couldn't do it... I-I'm actually going to die here, without a fighting chance?"

Mary then began to feel unsteady as her adrenaline faded, her vision blurred from time to time and she dropped to her knees from exhaustion. She looked up slightly and saw the first demon lunge at her at a frightening speed. Moments before it could kill her, the demon suddenly exploded into a bright light. The second demon looked on in surprise and attacked the overall area of where whatever destroyed the first demon was. Almost instantly the second demon was also destroyed by being cut in half.

Mary was surprised to say the least. She sluggishly looked around to see what destroyed the demons.

"W-what just happened?" Though she was shocked, her state of fatigue only allowed her to murmur softly.

As she said that to herself, a shape of what appeared to be an old man came into her vision. As she got a closer look she noticed that the man had youthful face, with what seemed to be a scar on his left eye. Behind him the shadow of another person with waist length hair tied into a ponytail appeared.

"That's the last of them. But it seems as though we were too late." The sad smile on his face confused Mary. He felt bad about the deaths of people he hadn't known? The other person, a man it seemed because of the masculine voice, clicked his tongue in irritation.

"Seems like it." He stated gruffly.

The white haired youth then turned to Mary. He looked at her in concern.

"Ma'am are you alright?"

Mary felt that far too many things had happened all at once this night. As her vision began to fade she saw the young man approach her panicked

"M-ma'am!?"

As Mary felt the rest of her energy diminish she saw the youth lunge and catch her before she hit the ground. Darkness overtook her vision.

(Next Morning)

Mary stirred in her bed as she began to awaken. As she focused on her surroundings she noticed that she was no longer in the alleyway, let alone her own town. In fact she didn't know anything about her location except for obviously being in a hospital.

"Was it just a nightmare?" As she asked herself that an old doctor came into her room. The man had a kind face. He smiled pleasantly as he saw Mary awake.

"Ah, you're awake? We thought that you'd awaken in the afternoon."

"Well I've always been told that I was unpredictable." She told him lightheartedly. The doctor chuckled and walked towards her bed.

"Is that so? That's good to hear then."

Mary swallowed nervously as she tries to find words to say next.

"Doctor? Where am I? And what happened last night?" The doctor nodded in understanding at her curiosity.

"You're in the hospital twenty meters away from your hometown. We don't know what happened to you except that a polite young man with white hair dropped you off." Though the doctor did not know what happened he could already guess that Mary was caught in the mysterious disappearance of her hometown in the previous day.

"Oh, I see..." She responded disheartened, she hoped that everything had been a nightmare but even she knew that would simply be her deluding herself. The doctor frowned sadly before pointing at her nearby cabinet.

"Ah yes. I remember the young man left a letter for you shortly after dropping you off."

Mary blinked in confusion and noticed that a letter with a rose cross emblem stamp was resting on the cabinet. She looked at the doctor, who nodded, before reaching out to the letter. As she opened the letter, she began to read the letter to herself.

'Dear Ma'am. If you are wondering if last night's events were only a dream, then I apologize because you were wrong. What you saw was real: the demons, the bodies, everything. I deeply apologize that my colleague and I were unable to save your town in time. If you are confused on how we dealt with your pursuers, let us just say we have gifts that allow us to destroy them. I recommend that you move on with your life even if it seems impossible right now. The demons you saw are spawned from the darkness every human contains in their hearts, all that is needed is great loss and grief; if you lost a loved one in your town please do not grieve for too long, and if anyone offers you to bring them back, please refuse them. Once again I apologize for your losses. And I hope you will live a long and healthy life. Sincerely, Allen Walker.'

Mary was shocked as she finished the letter. As memories of her town before the demons attacked them flowed through her head, she felt as though her heart had been ripped up to pieces now that she was alone. Ignoring the warning that was given for the time being, she allowed herself to grieve. She began to weep to herself before a sudden yet cheerful voice brought her out of it.

"Good Evening~'

* * *

**I'm back~**

**So I had this as a script for a movie class before, obviously I had to tweak it but it came through. I wanted to have a one of a kind story since the DGM forums has never had this type of story (as far as I know).**

**Now this is me proclaiming my return. HOWEVER, I need ideas for The Broken Façade. I offered what kind of help I needed on my last update before the hiatus announcement. I also have another story in mind. Okay, I'm done. Question time.**

**Q: What did you guys think when you first saw Cross "dying"?**

**I was pissed and thought "Scumbag Cross" x)**

**I mean the guy takes his sweet ass time to finally arrive into the manga and dies shortly after. What the hell man?**


End file.
